Divorce and family breakdowns are costing the national economy more than $14 billion a year in government assistance payments and court costs, an exclusive News Corp analysis has found.

That figure has blown out by $2 billion in the last two years alone, with each Australian taxpayer now paying about $1100 a year to support families in crisis.

The financial sting is one of the reasons why Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews has confirmed he will overhaul early intervention strategies in a bid to strengthen Australian families.

Mr Andrews told News Corp that as early as this month he will act to establish an expert panel on early intervention, which will be made up of a mix of practitioners and academics.

It will examine strategies to lower the divorce rate and better identify and assist vulnerable children and young people, including looking at whether more psychologists need to be deployed in kindergartens and preschools across the country.

“The reality is that most programs are programs that try to ameliorate the impact of marriage and family relationship breakdowns,” he said.

He will also demand government service providers be more outcome focused.

EARLY INTERVENTION KEY

Academic and relationship expert from the University of Queensland Matthew Bambling said he was not surprised the cost of divorce to the national economy had now toppled $14 billion.

“It is one of the key sources of transitory poverty among working people,” Dr Bambling said.

“People may be required to rely in greater part on the social welfare system, there is the potential for court costs borne through the government-funded system,” he said.

“If we are not thinking about this as a society, we are likely to pay the price with a lot more mopping up at the other end.”

Relationships Australia’s Grant Pearson <http://www.relationships.org.au/> has welcomed the government’s relationship counselling voucher system and its push to overhaul early intervention strategies.

He said more government resources for programs which deliver early intervention, like relationship counselling, would be beneficial both to couples and to the nation’s budget bottom line.

“For every program we have, we have waiting lists,” Mr Pearson said.

“There is often a wait to get into our main line services, and it can be up to two months — which is quite a while if a client is under pressure in the eleventh hour of their relationship,” he said.

RELATIONSHIP PRIORITIES

Like all besotted first time parents, Rebecca and Marcus Andreoli are quickly adjusting to the pressures that come with a having five month old baby.

But the Bondi couple, who have been together for seven years and married for half of that time, are conscious of the importance of taking time out to prioritise their relationship amid the whirlwind of parenthood.

“We definitely try to get out somewhere alone together, we try to do that once a fortnight,” Ms Andreoli says.

She said spending time together as a couple, as well as with their friends, helps keep their relationship strong.

Communicating well with each other about the demands of daily life is also a priority for the couple.

“We talk to each other about little things before they become big issue, we wait until we are both calm and then bring things up early, because it’s too easy for little resentments to build,” she said.

Newlyweds across Australia will be given a $200 voucher for marriage counselling from July 1, as part of a $20 million trial to strengthen relationships and avoid family breakdowns.

Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews confirmed the Federal Government’s $200 voucher scheme would proceed with a 12-month trial of 100,000 couples starting on July 1.

The Federal Government believes the move will strengthen relationships, create more happiness and stability in the home and create a better environment for children.

“The evidence shows that strong relationships between parents make a substantial difference to a child,” Mr Andrews said.

“Australian research also consistently finds that marriage and relationship education assists committed, married, engaged or cohabiting couples to move through the phases of their relationship with improved relationship skills, strengthening relationships for up to five years.”

About 120,000 couples are married in Australia every year.

The $200 subsidy will be able to be used for marriage and relationship education and counselling, including parenting education, conflict resolution and financial management education.

While the focus is on couples who are married or intending to marry, couples who are in a committed relationship, including same-sex couples, will also be eligible for the payment.

Relationship counsellors have welcomed the scheme, saying it is important for couples to discuss their values ­before tying the knot.

Relationships Australia (Qld) counsellor Valerie Holden said the first year of marriage was a time of transition.

“There are some things you don’t even think about or are not aware of until you get married – your beliefs, yours idea about finances or children,” she said.

“You are also getting used to living with someone, so there are issues that pop up in that first year that you don’t anticipate. Having a place to talk about that is a good thing.”

Centacare co-ordinator of pre-marriage education services Jennifer Mason said many couples attended pre-marriage education sessions, often through their church, before marriage.

“Couples provide overwhelmingly positive feedback, they speak about the advantage of being able to dedicate time to their relationship,” she said.

“Programs like ours are really about couples taking time out from their daily life, having some dedicated time together and looking at improving their skills.

“Marriage counselling is a nice idea,” he said. “But really, when you’re cutting the SchoolKids bonus, when you’re seeing child care workers’ promises being unfunded and child care workers not getting properly paid – where are the priorities of the Abbott Government?

“On one hand, they’ll take away from working parents and School Kids bonus, they’ll talk about a GP tax which means making it more expensive for families to take their kids to the doctor… so I think this is a government who doesn’t quite appreciate that cost of living can put pressure on marriages.”

Mr Shorten said the money could be better spent on maintaining election commitments.

“Perhaps the first thing they could do with this $20 million is say ‘alright we’re actually going to keep our promise that we made to voters before the election in order to get them to vote for us at the election,” he said.

The political rubbish doesn’t stop the government claims they will spend $200 on a trial for 12mth on 120000 couples when you know that almost 50000 marriages break up every year the maths doesn’t add up it is 10 million not 20 million they prepose to spend and use as a sweetener if you spend $100000 on each break up that becomes a $10 billion dollar industry keeping all the politicians in business why would they care about who’s kids are dying thats where the problem is